Bill protects cities from catastrophic death costs like Yarnell

PHOENIX -- An Arizona Senate committee has unanimously approved a bill that
would protect cities and towns from large insurance liabilities in the case of a
disaster that results in the death or serious injury of a public safety
employee.

House Speaker Andy Tobin says the bill would help cities like Prescott
following the deaths of 19 firefighters in the Yarnell Hill Fire. House Bill
2693 distributes the cost of death and serious injury benefits among all members
of the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System instead of keeping it within
the city or town for which those killed in the line of duty work.

Tobin says would protect Prescott from the approximate $5 million cost in death
benefits to the families of the Granite Mountain Hotshots.